Public housing for senior citizens
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Approved: 1,341 housing units for senior citizen olim
Inter-ministerial committee approves decision to build housing units for new immigrant senior citizens eligible for public housing
The Inter-ministerial committee on public land construction on Thursday approved in principle a decision to build 1, 341 housing units for new immigrant senior citizens who are eligible for public housing.
The units will be built in nine cities throughout the country: Ashdod, Bat Yam, Haifa, Kfar Saba, Carmiel, Rishon L'Zion, Rehovot, Kiryat Ono and Tel Aviv.
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This is the first step in a project to construct 4,000 housing units for senior citizens on public land as approved in the housing section of the Trajtenberg Committee recommendations a few months ago.
The Ministry of Immigrant Absorption stated that the implementation of the project will be determined at a later date and that the ministry offered a budget of NIS 110 million ($27.73 million) for the construction of the housing units.
Some 39,000 new immigrants who are senior citizens and fulfill the ministry's criteria for State funded housing currently reside in Israel. The Trajtenberg Committee findings revealed that there are currently 2,460 families waiting for public housing and some 450 senior citizens waiting to receive hostel housing.
Yet these numbers do not include the new immigrants who are eligible for public housing. Official data received in 2010 from a ministry official revealed that the number of new immigrants eligible for public housing is 39,401.
Over the last three years the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption has managed to supply some 10,000 with housing solutions. Minister Sofa Landver said: "I welcome the decision, which is a first step in the construction of 4,000 housing units which we promised and see it as another step in the Absorption Ministry's efforts to find housing solutions for the new immigrant population."
